Sir Paul McCartney‘s famous daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, waded into to the mounting controversy over the decision to pull the plug on her father’s duet with fellow rock legend Bruce Springsteen on Saturday night.

She told TIME, “I’m completely shocked that it seems London has conformed. Where’s the rock and roll in this city? I’m embarrassed. I think it’s embarrassing. It’s shocking, I mean two incredible musical icons. I think whoever turned that switch has a lot to answer for on many levels.”

Springsteen was headlining the Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park when he was joined on stage by the former Beatles member for renditions of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Twist and Shout’.

Hard Rock Calling is beloved to both Springsteen, who previously headlined the festival in 2009, and McCartney, who makes appearances there from time to time, most recently alongside Neil Young in 2009.

However, 76,000 fans were left bitterly disappointed after promoters switched off the rockers’ microphones at close to 11pm — half an hour after the show was scheduled to end — in accordance with their agreement with the local Westminster Council. ‬

By the time he left the stage, Springsteen had been performing for over three hours.

Live Nation, promoters of Hard Rock Calling, stated on their website, “It was unfortunate that the three hour-plus performance by Bruce Springsteen was stopped right at the very end but the curfew is laid down by the authorities in the interest of the public’s health and safety.”

The gig’s premature ending attracted the ire of Steve Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, who posted a series of increasingly irritated tweets in which he described the night as “One of the great gigs ever in my opinion.”

Van Zandt, who also starred in hit TV show The Sopranos, branded England a “police state” and speculated that, “English cops may be the only individuals left on earth that wouldn’t want to hear one more from Bruce Springsteen Paul McCartney?

He continued, “We break curfews in every country but only English cops needs to “punish us” by not letting us leave until the entire crowd goes.

“There’s no grudges to be held. Just feel bad for our great fans. Hard Rock is cool. Live Nation is cool. It’s some City Council stupid rule.” Van Zandt later apologized to the Metropolitan police, noting that he wasn’t sure who actually turned the power off.

Meanwhile, British actor Simon Pegg tweeted:”Can’t believe they pulled the plug on Springsteen and Macca last night in Hyde Park. What joyless, bitter killjoy made that decision? #shame”

The decision to cut short the performance also attracted an unlikely critic in Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who told LBC radio: “It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision. If they’d have called me, my answer would have been for them to jam in the name of the Lord.”

It is hard to get the facts straight. This article doesn't altogether do it. It makes it sound like the band played a half hour too long. But that is not the case. After reading several sourcees, it seems that:

1. According to organizers, they pulled the plug at 10:43, not 11 pm. One attendee even reported that mikes were cut at 10:38. That is not exceeding the curfew by very much.

2. Health amp; Safety did not actually tell them to stop the concert, but somebody working the concert who wanted to avoid trouble over the permit and so on.

3. But there was no need to cut the mikes, as the last song had ended, and Springsteen was simply thanking the fans.

4. And the concert reportedly began 30 minutes late. I don't know why, but it seems to me Bruce was just trying to give the fans their money's worth. McCartney's presence on stage made it even more special.

Well done council. Not everyone neighbouring the park should be assumed a fan... the agreement was until 11, and they'd already exceeded it substantially. Twist and Shout is hardly a non intrusive lullaby.

One would hope professionals of their maturity would know how to perform and complete with accurate timing and understand that for.many locals it would be intrusive.

The modest hour is deceptive. Silence does not happen at the pull of a plug.... the attendees make a lot of noise for some time departing.... the obvious reason their departure was prioritised.

Assuming such a momentous concert was being audio amp; video recorded for posterity by some commercial entity, couldn't the council have arranged that any post-curfew additional costs be covered by a donation to the Hyde Park funding and/or a donation to help defray Olympic Games costs? Depending on the contracts covering the concert, it would seem the norm these days that some such arrangement would be done pre-concert to defray any grounds damages, etc.